PANJIM: Looking at the protests that have been erupting almost everywhere in Goa regarding the government’s policies on various critical issues, there is a feeling of despondency amongst the people all across Goa, in villages and small towns.
This is possibly happening because of the government’s inability to take the people into confidence about their policy decisions and lack of transparency in the decision-making process, said experts during the Herald TV’s weekly discussion programme Point-Counterpoint.
The Convenor of Goencho Awaz, Swapnesh Sherlekar said, “We have been posting tough questions to the government regarding its policies. But it is unable to answer them. The best example of it is sustainability, or Swayampurna Goa as they call it.”
“Let’s take the example of North Goa. Let’s talk about water security. North Goa is entirely dependent on Mhadei and Tillari rivers. Both originate from other States. What happens if both the States tomorrow decide to stop the water from coming to Goa? Mhadei is already on the verge of going away from the hands of Goans. What happens if water from the Tillari river is also stopped?” Sherlekar said.
“In Goa, our water resources are connected with the hills, which have been ruined by mining and concretisation,” he said.
“These hills act as water reservoirs. After mining, the Real Estate is finishing our hills. This is destroying the aquifers. So water security is going for a toss. Now come to food security. Of all the command areas, the biggest in North Goa is the Tillari command area which is the major irrigation project. Medium irrigation is in the Anjunem command area, which is partly in Sattari and Bicholim. But it is not notified anywhere,” the activist said.
He said that TCP is assuming the powers over it and is bluntly granting permissions to construct buildings even in agriculture fields, forget command areas.
“So along with water security, our food security also goes for a toss. When we ask these questions, the government doesn’t have any answer and labels us as Urban Naxals,” Sherlekar said.
Kalanand Mani, Founder of Peaceful Society, said, “We have an endless amount of news about the confrontation between the people and the State government. Thankfully the judiciary sometimes upholds the people’s demands, but how long is this going to happen?” he asked.
“For the last 40-45 years, we have been raising the issue of Goa’s survival, but not a single government authority has ever convened any meeting to know why people are agitating. Whenever we raise these issues, we are branded as anti-Goan, anti-national and anti-development. This is very unfortunate in a democratic setup,” Mani said.
Environmentalist Ramesh Gawas called the process of giving environmental clearances given by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for the resumption of mining activities as fraudulent.
“The latest EC is a fraud, with a lot of concealed information. EAC is always committing these frauds. They are not bothered whether the facts are being produced. They have a consultation with the project proponent which twists everything and conveys the things in a way that it helps the EAC and then the latter gives suggestions to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC),” Gawas said.
“The way the EAC members visited Mayem to check out whether it is a forest area and how much area is private forest, that they should have come also to visit the other aspects within that mining lease like houses plus other things like water bodies and the aquifers. They don’t do it, and that’s why they are getting the EC so easily,” Gawas said.
J Santano Rodrigues, Convenor, Goa Panchayati Raj Institutions Union, said, “Panchayats can’t be blamed for whatever is happening today. All rights of panchayats have been withdrawn by the government. We are not even authorised to give licences for projects in the villages.”
He said that there used to be a time when Gram Sabhas had value. Now Gram Sabhas don’t have any power.
“The government has withdrawn the rights of Gram Sabhas to discuss issues like permitting developmental projects. The youngsters living in villages are not interested in participating in gram sabhas. It seems, only the elders are bothered about sustainable development,” Rodrigues said.
